


Unpredictable Histories

by deadsymbolism



Category: Being Human, Being Human (UK)
Genre: Annie is a champion, F/M, Hal has issues, Scottish history, Still shocked I wrote fic for this pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-28
Updated: 2012-04-28
Packaged: 2017-11-04 10:45:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadsymbolism/pseuds/deadsymbolism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annie panics, and Hal has to deal with the fallout. In Edinburgh, of all places.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unpredictable Histories

**Author's Note:**

> I really still can't believe I wrote fic for this pairing! I ship it, but just the tiniest bit. The lovely [mswyrr](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mswyrr/pseuds/mswyrr) provided the prompt and it was just way too much fun for me to leave alone. 
> 
> Apologies for any loose Americanisms that crop up, I tried to keep them to a minimum. Oh, and for the whole re-writing of a gruesome bit of Scottish history, that too. I just really love that city.

Annie had been watching the man prowl around the front door for over two minutes by now. He had knocked on the door, called out to ask if anyone was home, and now was peering in the windows. It had officially passed into the territory of “creepy,” and she was more than familiar with what constituted that boundary. Thankfully, Eve was out with Tom at the shops, after the werewolf had insisted that she needed both fresh air and some new toys, preferably not in the shape of a crucifix. Annie hadn’t raised the alarm yet because, well, the man certainly didn’t _look_ like a vampire come hell-bent on destroying the savior of humanity—she certainly had yet to meet one who favored pastel polos and pressed khaki trousers besides Hal, at least. So she just watched him, for the time being, through narrowed eyes.

Then he started examining the hanging flower basket near the door, and Annie panicked. _How did he know about Tom’s stakes? Had they been watching the house?!_

She vanished and re-appeared less than a second later upstairs in Hal’s room, beginning to yell as soon as soon as she landed. “Hal, there’s a man watching the house and I think he’s been scouting it out, we have to go, Tom’s got Eve, we have to get out of here and go find her and take her away, NOW—“

Hal had jumped approximately a metre into the air when Annie had appeared without warning, screaming her head off, and was still rather too dazed to understand the actual content of the ghost’s urgent message. “Annie, for the love of GOD—“He yelled back.

“There’s no time Hal, just, just, hang on! I’m going to get us out of here and then we’re going for Eve,” she blustered, Hal’s reaction only driving her into a further panic. Annie grabbed him and wrenched Hal up from a 2,000 piece puzzle of kittens frolicking in a field that he’d managed to find in a cupboard, ignoring his protests.

She closed her eyes and concentrated hard, her hand still gripping his arm as tight as a ghost could, and they disappeared in an instant, Hal asking the whole time if she had somehow lost her mind.

Moments later, they reappeared, and Annie opened her eyes. Hal looked more dazed than ever, his brow furrowed and lips pursed in indignation. Annie looked around, trying to get her bearings. It was cool, colder than Barry, and they were…on top of a hill? In a city, obviously, with narrow cobble lanes and young people out enjoying a decent early spring day at the side cafes, but nowhere she could instantly recognize.

Hal, meanwhile, had been looking around, becoming more incredulous by the second. He broke the silence first.

“Edinburgh. We’re in bloody _Edinburgh_.” He sounded faintly outraged.

An older woman passing near them turned to see if Hal was speaking to her and clutched her purse tighter when it appeared he was talking only to himself.

“Erm, Hal, you’re attracting a bit of attention,” Annie whispered.

“You rent-a-ghosted us to _Scotland_ , Annie,” Hal’s voice was becoming remarkably shrill, the way it often did when he was strained.

A large man in a rugby shirt bumped into Hal with an, “Oi, mate, watch it,” in a rough Scottish brogue.

Hal turned quickly on his heel and walked down a side street into a small nearby car park behind a closed nightclub. Annie rushed after him. When they were alone, he whirled on her. “Why on God’s green earth would you rent-a-ghost us to Scotland, of all places?”

“I panicked, okay! I told you, there was a man _watching the house_ , I’m sure he was looking for Eve, he even knew where Tom kept stakes hidden, I had to protect you—“ Annie broke off at Hal’s quizzical expression. “Well, you know, you and the house.” She had never been so glad the dead couldn’t blush.

She looked around, her nose wrinkling. “We came here on a school trip when I was fifteen. It was the first time I got piss-drunk, and then Tom mentioned that man who came into the café reeking of whiskey earlier, and I don’t know, it was the first place on my mind, I suppose!”

Hal sighed and rubbed his temples. “Christ. Well, what did the man look like? Did he try to enter and was physically unable to?”

Annie thought. “No, he didn’t really try. He seemed pretty normal, at first, average white guy, he was wearing a polo shirt and khaki trousers--“

Hal interrupted. “Was the polo pink, by any chance?”

Annie stared. “Oh god, you know who he is, is he an Old One or something?”

Hal’s expression changed to one of both deep relief and extreme exasperation. “No, Annie. If he was wearing a pink polo and khakis, I am fairly certain it’s that man from down the street with the large garden in his front yard. He’s always out watering his begonias when Tom and I get home from the café, and most of the time, wearing a pink polo.”

The ghost was taken aback. “So we were never in any danger? I sent us to Scotland over a nosy neighbour?”

Hal nodded, bemused. “Yes. I suppose there are worse places we could have ended up, considering you weren’t really thinking about it.” Annie raised an eyebrow in warning and Hal coughed.

“Right, well, no need to spend any more time here than necessary, we should get back to Barry. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this city and I have no desire to stay here.”

Annie wouldn’t normally have asked, but she was intrigued by Hal’s composure, so abnormal for him. The new scenery, oddly enough, did not have him frazzled. “Bad memories, then?”

Hal looked at her with a sort of pained, sad expression. “Actually, on the contrary. Possibly my only noble act as a blood-drunk vampire tearing my way through the human world was performed in Edinburgh.”

She found she wanted to know more, despite her previous refusal. Hal, who needed such tight control and rigid discipline to keep from going all-out evil, had once done something good as a vampire on the blood?

“Will you tell me about it?” She asked gently.

Hal searched her face for a moment. He was quiet, then nodded. “Yes, alright. Let’s see…how much do you know about Burke and Hare, Annie?”

She wracked her brain for a moment. Then it dawned on her. “Oh God, the body snatchers, right? The ones who killed all those people in the 1800s?

He smiled and nodded, softly and a little sadly. “From late 1827 to 1828, over the span of a year, they sold 17 bodies of murder victims to doctors in Edinburgh. There was a shortage of cadavers for study at the time, you see. Grave robbing had been the traditional illegal method of obtaining the bodies, but Burke and Hare took it a bit further. At the time, I was…involved with politics in Edinburgh, and there was quite a sizeable vampire population.”

Annie interrupted. “I really don’t see how any of this could exactly be construed as ‘good’, Hal.”

His smile became sadder but didn’t falter. “It’s a long story, and necessary background. I promise. Anyway, I was essentially running the city for the vampires at the time. We were contacted by Misters Burke and Hare, who were somehow familiar with our existence, and they tried to strike up a scheme in which they provided us with willing victims and we gave the bodies back for them to sell for our cut of the money. It would have been a sure way of obtaining blood but it was…cheap, I remember thinking at the time. Evidently, not all the vampires agreed with me. Some of them secretly agreed to the deal.

“They weren’t killing enough to arouse my suspicions, but after a while, the truth came out. I killed all the vampires implicated with the men and in my anger at being defied, stalked the two of them. I was able to gather evidence quite easily, and when they killed their final victim, I anonymously tipped off the police with her body’s location. They arrested Burke and Hare based on this information, and when Hare turned on his partner in court, Burke was hanged and the spree ended. It’s the only time in my life I supposed I’ve ever stopped mass killing.” Hal was no longer smiling, and his dark eyes were far away.

Annie was speechless for a moment. When she spoke, it was slowly. “Good God, Hal, you didn’t just stop killing. You…gave people closure. You could have just killed them both and none one would ever have known what happened. You might have been a monster, but I think you did a kind of justice most humans wouldn’t be able to do.”

Hal’s laugh was bitter. “Don’t make it into something it’s not, Annie. It wasn’t noble just because it was the right choice.”

She opened her mouth again to argue, but found she couldn’t. He was right, one good deed made up for nothing. There were no cosmic balancing scales that could weigh out all that Hal had done. So instead, she asked the other question on her mind. “So…what happened to Hare?”

The corner of Hal’s lips quirked upward. “I’m fairly certain Fergus ate him, though I specifically forbade him to do so. I could never prove it.”

Annie laughed, despite herself and the gruesomeness of it. Hal was so much more than “Lord Harry,” than what he used to be, and at the same time so much more than the fragile man in George’s old room, keeping to himself and his rituals. She forgot that, sometimes. She couldn’t figure him out, and for once in her long and terrible history of men that didn’t seem like such a bad thing.

“Thank you for telling me. I’m glad you did.” When she kissed his cheek on an impulse, Hal’s eyes closed.  It was soft, like the lightest brush of a feather against his skin, but his chest constricted all the same.

Annie pulled away, and grabbing his hand with a smile, she transported them both home.

 *****

When they appeared in the living room, Tom looked up from the couch with Eve. “Top Gear” was blaring, but Eve was sleeping like an angel. “There you two are! Was wondrin’ where you’d got to.”

Annie smiled. “Trust me, that is a long story. We’ll tell you at dinner. How’s Eve?”

“Brillian’, she’s been sleepin’ for ages. Oh, and we ran into Mr. Lowes down the way, ‘e wanted to know how ya got your hanging baskets to look so nice, ‘cause the rot was eatin’ his. Said he popped ‘round earlier to ask but nobody was home.”

Tom looked confused when Hal groaned. Annie just looked embarrassed. “Right. Well, I’m going to go put the kettle on. I think we all need it.” 


End file.
